Blog Katie Allen June 2023
Summer fun on vacation is just one of those childhood memories that glows the brightest. However, when you have a rare disease, there are a few handy tips for making it all fun in the sun. The first lesson I learned was to have extra medications, whether it’s cancelled flights or wildfire season in Canada, […]
Blog Katie Allen May 2023
Spring has finally hit the west coast of Canada, though it’s probably more accurate to say we skipped spring entirely and went straight to summer. Our little town had its second annual tulip festival, and while it may be much smaller than the tulip fields of Amsterdam, it was still so pretty that you just […]
Blog Katie Allen Apr. 2023
I was 12 years old when I started receiving laser treatments (that’s me with the awful haircut about a month after the first one), 17 years later the marks look vastly different, though the asymmetry will always be there. Even with years of self-reflection and confidence gains, I still struggle to take a photo face-on, […]
Blog Katie Allen Mar. 2023
I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Canadian Organisation for Rare Diseases (CORD) Rare Disease Day Conference on March 28th and 29th. I attended virtually here in British Columbia while the conference was held in Ottawa, allowing patients and patient advocates from across Canada to come together and sit down with Members of Parliament […]
Blog Katie Allen Feb. 2023
Happy Rare Disease Day! Like many patients with a rare disease, the reality is many of my doctors are not in my city. So I travel to larger centres for treatments or appointments with specialists. When I was little that meant flying from Saskatchewan to Vancouver for a meeting with the Vascular Anomalies Team at […]
Blog Katie Allen Jan. 2023
While I never felt like CMTC held me back from sports and other physical activities, there have been some challenges. With a 3cm leg length difference, I tend to trip and fall at the best of times, especially in activities I competed in as a teenager. Over the years, my balance has somewhat improved; but […]
Blog Katie Allen Dec. 2022
When asked to start a blog on my CMTC I will admit I was nervous. I have often shared my experience in person, but a blog is new, very new, so I hope you will be patient and allow me to muddle along through this shared experience. I started laser treatments when I was 12 […]
